(TNND) — A network of New York City socialists, led by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), is organizing a “rapid response” force of more than 4,000 anti-ICE activists aimed at opposing anticipated Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in the city, The New York Post reported.
At a recent meeting of the DSA’s Immigrant Justice Working Group, leaders outlined plans to train 2,000 DSA members and 2,000 non-members to confront and obstruct ICE detentions, using tactics developed from protests in Minnesota.
As we’ve seen in other cities, we still do anticipate a big wave of federal immigration enforcement,” one organizer told the crowd, according to the Post.It can be confusing, it can be scary, it can be kind of uncertain what’s happening in New York right now… But we want to be on our front foot if and when it does.
The strategy discussed at the meeting includes having activists “form a crowd, stay loud” and swarm ICE agents during operations, with the intent of disrupting arrests and detentions.
Organizers also said they are expanding a 24/7 ICE hotline to provide linguistic support for immigrant communities, encouraging participation from speakers of Pular, Creole, Fulani and other languages.
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The effort is being presented by activists as a way to bring “Minnesota tactics” to New York in response to what they view as an impending increase in federal immigration enforcement actions.